


all the bright places

by littlelooneyluna



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: Family, Gen, M/M, Softness, daddy!Robron, it's just happiness mixed with a little insecurity but also reassurance, tooth rooting fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 06:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11708886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlelooneyluna/pseuds/littlelooneyluna
Summary: aaron spends his thirtieth birthday with his family.





	all the bright places

**Author's Note:**

> this was some fluff written for @aarondingel because it was her birthday the other day! hope you enjoy the fluff!

It's the sound of trees whistling in the breeze which stirs Aaron awake, he can hear the birds chirping away outside and something travels through him with ease as he flickers his eyes open.

Robert's laying next to him, face turned towards his, freckles even more noticeable against his soft complexion and bed hair. He looks oddly at peace and Aaron can't help but leave him like that for a little longer. He's wrapping an arm around his husband, nestling closer into Robert's chest and tugging the covers over them both because the world can wait a little while.

He's woken up again this time by the sound of flipping drums and tin cans being smashed together and he fights the need to swear as he senses two little children bouncing through the room. Robert's there, turning over in bed and he's fully awake now, shivering slightly because he probably hasn't even bothered to put the heating on.

Robert leans down and kisses Aaron, sends something pulsating through the younger man as he looks at his lips. "I'd kiss ya thirty times but -"

Aaron gulps, "Yeah, keep it PG." He mumbles out, desperately fighting the need to just go crazy and ask Robert to touch him in all the right places.

He can't go around doing that though because Annie and Jacob are edging closer and they're looking ridiculously adorable. They've both got neon hi-vis jackets on and the colour startles Aaron's sleepy eyes.

Jacob's only five but he seems to think he's much older as he stands there cheekily waiting for his dads to pay him attention. He'd grown so much recently and it's scary. Aaron can think back to the days when he used to sleep in between him and Robert and they'd just watch him _breathe_ because they were that scared about something going wrong. He was perfect though, in every way he could be.

"Daddy! Happy birthday!" He's saying, jumps hard on the bed and lands on Aaron's thigh making him groan out in pain as Jacob fights a laugh and Annie looks all concerned.

She's like that, Robert says she gets it from Aaron but Aaron's always there to remind him of how caring and sweet he can be too and yeah, Robert only believes it sometimes.

He's still got a long way to go before he genuinely believes Aaron's sticking around and it's crazy because Aaron was convinced he was the insecure wreck in the relationship. But since they got married officially, it's Robert who says soppy things about wanting to not waste a single second of happiness.

Like it's going to just evaporate soon.

It isn't. Aaron knows it isn't.

"You can't do that to daddy anymore, he's getting old like me." Robert laughs out, watches Aaron laugh and then start attacking Jacob with tickles as his curly brown hair charges into Aaron's chest.

Aaron rolls his asks, reminds Jacob and Annie how old he is now and watches them gasp and widen their eyes in shock.

Then Robert tells him his age and they topple over the bed dramatically as they gasp.

It's a light moment, one Aaron didn't think he could afford.

 

::

 

Aaron's got to do the whole blindfold, act like you can't hear your kids whispering loudly, thing.

He's fighting a smile, biting down hard on his lip actually and then he feels a tray drop on his lap and he's gasping.

"Take it off now daddy." Annie whispers, all soft edges and blonde locks.

Aaron removes the blindfold and reads the toast out with a smile: 'Happy birthday daddy.'

Robert's standing there, looking all hot and bothered because he's probably left the kitchen in a mess and the kids have probably run riot downstairs whilst Aaron's been lounging about in bed. But he does this wink and something literally melts in Aaron's heart.

 _After all these years_.

 

::

 

He's got presents, piles of them and they're mostly from Annie and Jacob.

Jacob passes him a birthday hat he'd made at school and Robert just laughs as Aaron attempts to put it on.

Annie makes him a necklace out of pasta shells and yeah, he becomes one of those parents who nearly cries over their own Pasta Shell Necklace.

 

::

 

Robert does something soppy, buys him this glass artwork with sand trapped inside.

"It's from the beach, your beach." Robert tells him, and Aaron looks towards the small fossils and sea shells inside. "Jakey and Annie helped me pick them." He explains, voice soft and slow and it takes Aaron back to the visit they'd taken when Annie was a month old.

She was let out of the hospital finally and the crying had stopped.

Aaron was holding her close to his chest and Robert was running around on the sand with Jacob. Aaron watched his husband lift his head up and smile at his little girl.

Smile, for the first time in months.

"It's amazing." Aaron blurts out, because he hasn't said anything and Robert's looking worried. "You're fucking amazing." He says, surges towards Robert and wraps his arms around his husband.

 

::

 

They're having a party on the weekend so no one comes around, and Aaron's glad really when it hits about six o'clock.

He's done nothing all day, apart from play with Annie and Jacob out in the garden and devour a whole cake that Robert (it had to be Vic) made for him with the help of his little cherubs.

' _"Make a wish daddy!" Annie tells Aaron, all over excited._

_Aaron looks up at Robert, this bloke in old jeans and a white top and still not fixed his hair well enough since this morning, and then down towards his kids who he never thought he'd have with him._

_He doesn't need to make one really._

_He blows out the candles all the same though, just wishes for this, wishes he can have it forever.'_

"Daddy, did you have a best birthday?" Jacob's asking and Aaron scoops him up and gets the boy on his shoulders before nodding.

"Of course I did." Aaron tells him, still donning the pasta shell necklace and secretly crying about it. "Because I had you and Annie and daddy here." He says before letting Jacob down and smiling at him.

Jacob's nodding his head like he usually does when he's thinking and then he's moving his little hands over his face. "Daddy giant said that - that you have to have the best day in the whole world." He exaggerates with his hands and Aaron laughs at him. "Because - he didn't have the best thirty birthday." He says and something pulls at Aaron's chest.

They were together again then, fresh after the trial. Aaron remembers freaking out about something that day, waking Robert up in the middle of the night with a slap to the chest because he needed to feel someone close to him.

He'd tried to make up for it, bought him a cupcake and stabbed a candle in it, splurged his feelings out in a card the best he could.

"Did daddy giant tell you that?" He's wonderful, head dropping a little as he watches Annie toddle towards them both and she's more alive than she was a few hours ago. She's come out of her shell again, bless her.

Jacob shakes his head and frowns, "No but he said he only had you." He says, and it's typical that Jacob's ran with what little he had and invented his own thoughts.

Annie pouts, pulls an arm around Aaron's neck and turns all protective. "Daddy fluffy is enough." She mumbles, barely gets her words out but they can't believe how well she's doing considering she was premature.

He clings to her tighter, presses a kiss to her hair and thinks about when they told them to prepare for the worst.

Nothing worse compared to that feeling.

He'd seen Robert _cry_ , slide down the hospital wall and ball his eyes out and it was so terrifyingly raw.

She's pulled through though, and Robert smiled again.

"Of course he is." Robert says, comes out with a tea towel over his shoulder and he's winking at Aaron again like he's on a promise or something. It excites too much out of Aaron and he has to drop his head down and hear Annie and Jacob jump up and down when they see what their dad is holding.

"Me! Me!" Jacob's bouncing up and down and Aaron smiles warmly as he watches Robert standing there with jelly and ice cream in the _assigned_ bowls for the kids. Robert raises an eyebrow and that's all it takes before Jacob lets out a little sigh. "May I have some please?" He does his best smile and he's still cute, it pays off well.

 

::

 

There's a knock on the door a few hours later and Robert stands by waiting for Aaron to open it.

"Just one of my presents." Robert whispers slowly and then Aaron's being crushed into a hug by Liv as he opens the door. Liv who's travelling and wouldn't be back until Easter, Liv who's made something for herself and makes Aaron proud beyond words.

"What ya doing here?" Aaron's asking as he pulls away and starts wiping away his tears, face red and puffy as he looks at how big she's got.

Liv shrugs like usual and slumps her rucksack on the floor. "Moneybags over here booked me a flight and told me not to be late. Happy birthday then grandad." She says, smiling at Robert and then shouting for the kids to come and attack her.

The way they thunder down the stairs is insane.

Aaron watches Robert disappear into the kitchen and he manages to pull the older man against the wall and kiss him hard without anyone seeing them. Robert lets out a soft moan and smiles into another kiss as Aaron runs a hand through his hair.

"I fucking love you." Aaron tells him, eyes bright and sparkling and then he's getting all emotional. He's hearing Liv bang on about all these amazing places and then hearing the gasps from Annie and Jacob as they listen to her every word. "I really do." It's mad to think he looked at Robert one day and came to the conclusion that he was always going to love the same man for the rest of his life.

Only ever him.

Robert runs a hand over Aaron's hair and kisses his forehead. He doesn't like to admit it but Aaron knows he's grown so much softer in his old age. Robert's gentler and kinder and yet still does that smirk which takes Aaron right back to where it all started.

"And I love you too." Robert tells him, wipes at Aaron's eyes. "Happy tears?" He whispers, tugs a little at Aaron's waist and brings the younger man closer towards him.

Aaron hears Liv say that Aaron's so lucky to have the best birthday ever and he feels at the pasta shell necklace that Adam'll probably rib him for at work and yeah, another tear rolls down his face and he's nodding.

"Happy tears." He promises, watches Robert's face shine as if that's all he's ever wanted to know and then Aaron's feeling his husband pull his hands in place on his face and kiss him softer this time.

They smile into another kiss as the sun is setting and Aaron sees nothing but bright colours.

 

 

_**fin.** _


End file.
